XANADU ICE CLIMBING WALL
By Alan (L) Jones
On 23 June Wigan's Leisure Services Department gave a presentation outlining the latest ideas on its Xanadu project. This is a major sports and leisure complex adjacent to the Pennington Flash Country Park, just off the East Lancashire Road. It will now comprise two separate buildings for a regional aquatics centre and a national artificial snow centre. These will be supported by a wide range of commercial leisure facilities.
The snow centre will include 36000 m2 of man made snow which will provide 3 ski pistes in excess of 200 m in length and 30 m width of various inclines to suit all standards of skier. There will be an additional 800 m2 nursery and play area which could also be use at specified times, for Nordic training with cut tracks. There will also be a 100 m half pipe for the snowboarders. Fantastic as this may be, it is considerably less than originally envisaged because the sports Council has announced that there will be no Lottery Grants for indoor snow facilities. This is being challenged by the skiing governing bodies, but it is unlikely that the original project can be saved at this stage. The decision has been made to go ahead on a commercial basis with this smaller project.
The good news for the KMC is that climbing facilities are still included in the plan. There will be both an ice climbing wall within the snowdome and a dry climbing wall. It is thought that the indoor artificial ice climbing wall will be the World's first. Some thought therefore needs to go into its design and the BMC will be involved with this. It may need some encouragement from clubs to ensure that this goes ahead.
I am representing the interests of skiers on the working group which is over-seeing the snowdome, but it needs someone with greater technical knowledge to ensure that the ice climbing wall satisfies the needs of mountaineers. I can of course add weight to any representations which may be made on behalf of mountaineering groups, if I am kept informed. I was rather disappointed to note that the BMC did not respond to the invitation to the presentation.
